Credit card skimming device found on gas station pump at Mobil station on Palm Coast Parkway

The station is located at the entrance to the Island Walk Shopping Center.

An investigator found a credit card skimming device on a gas pump at the Mobil gas station and 7-Eleven at the entrance to the Island Walk Shopping Center after a woman who'd used her card there found fraudulent charges on her account.

How to avoid being 'skimmed'

After skimming devices were found at four local gas stations last July, the Flagler County Sheriff's Office suggested residents take the following steps to avoid becoming a victim of credit card skimming:

Check the gas pump, and don't use it if anything looks loose, cracked or added.

If you can, use pumps closest to the store. Crooks have to insert skimmers manually and try to do it out of the line of sight of gas station employees.

Use credit cards instead of debit cards. Credit cards have better fraud protection, and the money isn't deducted from the account immediately.

For the most protection, pay cash in the store.

Skimming devices feed credit card users' card information back to crooks who them use it to make purchases.

The woman reported to a Flagler County Sheriff's Office deputy on Jan. 23 that she'd tried to use her card and found that her bank had closed it down because of a fraudulent charge: $75 from a Marathon gas station in Pembroke Pines on Jan. 22.

The woman told the deputy that she'd used the card at the Mobil station in Palm Coast at 220-A Palm Coast Parkway NE on Jan. 17.

The deputy contacted the store clerk, who said she'd checked the gas pump's security tape in the morning and hadn't seen anything suspicious. The deputy contacted a Department of Agriculture investigator, who checked the gas pumps and found a skimmer.

It's not the first time investigators have found credit card skimmers in Palm Coast gas stations, or at that particular Mobil station. Skimmers were found at four Palm Coast gas stations, including the Mobil station, in July 2017.